1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a new system for aiding or navigating a person related to medical care such as a medical doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist, a medical office worker and so on, to make a medical care schedule. The present invention also relates to a computer readable program storage device for allowing a computer to function as the aiding system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in case that a certain patient comes to a hospital or is brought by an ambulance as an outpatient with a cardinal symptom (i.e., a cardinal symptom of sickness or illness) such as a headache, a sicchasia or vomiturition, a tinnitus, a stomachache and so on, the medical doctor performs an observation or examination for the patient. Then, at first the medical doctor makes up a medical care schedule in his or her mind as for a test, a medical service, an arrangement for hospitalization, a medical operation, an administration of medicine etc., after that in accordance with the observation and the diagnosis. Then, for example, the medical doctor may make such a schedule by writing, on a so-called “instruction table” sheet for exclusive use, the medical care schedule or plan for the patient such as the schedule and content of the test and the medication, the schedule and content of the medical operation, the schedule and content of the post-operation treatment or examination and so on.
Recently, as disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2706645 (Japanese Patent Application Laying Open NO. Hei 9-185651) corresponding to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/746,175 which has been applied by the present inventor, it is also possible to make such a medical care schedule on a table, in which medical care actions of various types are arranged in first rows for each type of the medical care actions and in second rows orthogonal to the first rows for each date, displayed on a computer display. Namely, it is possible to make such a medical care schedule on a medical care schedule table which is displayed by executing a program called as a “care map” (which is a trade mark registered in Japan, and hereinbelow this kind of medical care schedule table is simply referred to as a “care map” as the occasion demands), by filling each item in the care map in accordance with the diagnosis or observation of the medical doctor. More concretely, the medical care schedule maker such as a medical care doctor sets medical care items related to the pertinent patient as the items to constitute the ordinate (first row) of the table and also sets an appropriate term assigned to the date constituting the abscissa (second row) of the table in which the medical care actions belonging to the set items will be performed, in accordance with the diagnosis or observation, so that the frames of the care map are constructed. Further, he or she inputs the medical care actions to be performed into each frame of the care map at the date and item corresponding thereto (hereinbelow, each frame of the table is called as a “cell” as the occasion demands). Then, after the scheduled medical care action is performed, a performance or result data remains as a confirmed data in each cell of the care map in place of the schedule data. Namely, in this care map, the schedule data is shown with the performance or result record data.
Especially, according to the above mentioned care map, since the hospital concerned personnel such as the medical doctor, the nurse, the pharmacist etc., who actually performs the medical care schedule share the medical care schedule information, it is possible to make the medical care schedule with little loss and perform the medical care schedule while appropriately adjusting or amending it in cooperation with each other e.g., inputting and changing the data associated with each cell (or each item) in the care map at each of the terminals.
However, according to the above mentioned care map, especially in a sophisticated actual medical field nowadays, since a large number of medical care actions and/or a large number of medical resources are inter-related to each other in a complicated manner, it is difficult for a person to appropriately or speedily make the medical care schedule, unless he or she is a veteran or old-professional person who knows mutual relationships between the medical care actions such as the nutrition restriction, the medical administration, the workup test, the diagnosis, the medical operation, the rehabilitation and so on (i.e., unless he or she knows when and what kinds of medical care actions should be performed, in order to perform one medical care action at a specific date or time, with respect to this specific date or time as a standard).
Furthermore, in case that the date when the workup examination as one of the medical care actions is changed or in case that a special workup examination is additionally performed which requires additional days, if the schedule date as for this specific item in the care map is changed, the date as for another item which is to be performed after this specific item such as a medical operation, the date as for another item which is to be performed before this specific item such as another workup examination, the date as for another item which is to be performed immediately before or after this specific item such as a nutrition restriction or medicine administration, should be also changed.
Namely, although the activity to input each item in the care map on the computer display is rather easy for the veteran or old-professional doctor or the like, it is very inconvenient since, when one portion of the medical care schedule consisting of a large number of items which have been once determined is to be changed, another item which is related to the changed one portion should be also inputted again, which is a problem. For example, in case that an emergent patient due to an traffic accident is received or a medical doctor cannot follow his schedule, by changing just the date for one item or by changing just the content of the medical care action such as the kind of the medicine rather slightly, the changes as for other large number of items become inevitable in actual cases, so that this problem is very serious. Especially, in a hospital where a large number of serious or urgent patients are accommodated, if such a job or activity to make the medical care schedule cannot be speedily performed, it may lead to a fatal event related to a human life. Thus, the veteran or old-professional doctor etc., should spend his or her time and energy in a large amount for the job or activity to change the medical care schedule itself, resulting in that the valuable medical resource runs short corresponding to that amount.